Rabbit Emerges From Closed Doors

June 27, 1986|The Morning Call

Shame on Thomas P. O'Neill! The ruler of the roost in theU.S. House of Representatives may have been within his seignorial rights to bar the door of that chamber to the president of the United States. But he certainly was not displaying good manners - or political good sense. In fact, Mr. O'Neill may have inadvertently revealed how much he, the consummate Democratic politician, fears the wooing power of The Great Communicator. Mr. Reagan sought permission from the speaker of the House to address that group, ostensibly to persuade the representatives of the soundness and the crucial nature of his plan to supply the Nicaraguan Contras with $100 million in U.S. aid. "No," grumped the speaker, and shut the door. The speaker's apparent anxiety was shown to be well founded when the president's last-minute - and out-of-the-House - pleadings proved effective enough to garner approval of that measure. There is precedent, of course. Recall Mr. Reagan's last-minute arm twisting in the Senate that dragged a Contra victory from the sure jaws of senatorial defeat.

In rejecting the president's request, Mr. O'Neill referred to it as "unprecedented." The White House legal office scoffs at such a claim and has trotted out a list of "precedents." For example: President Nixon in 1969 addressed the House on the subject of the war in Vietnam; President Truman in 1945 appeared before the Senate to talk about the United Nations charter; President Wilson, the first chief executive in modern times to do so, spoke to only one chamber - the Senate - during visits in 1917, 1918 and 1919. In addition, presidents Adams and Washington were unicameral speakers.

A spokesman for the House historian, however, argues that the right of administration of that body, including the monitoring of the guest list, is a traditional right of the speaker.

Lack of precedent, alone, should not be reason enough to deny the president the opportunity to try to make his case on anytopic before our elected representatives. Mr. O'Neill, in his hasty decision, has projected an image of having a closed mind on this subject, which, considering his public utterances on Contra aid, comes as no surprise.

But, through the speaker's decision glowed the palpable fear of the possibility that Mr. Reagan, given his renowned powers of persuasion, and given an 11th-hour audience, just might pull another bipartisan rabbit out of his presidential hat. And he did, even without setting foot inside Tip's domain.